Saturday, November 26, 2011

Stern and Hunter aren't winners. This deal went down very badly and they repeatedly looked bad in the process.

The players aren't really losers. They will still be making a lot of money and earning a fair amount of economic rents.

Jeffrey Kessler is a big loser. His way (lawsuits) got pushed aside, another voice (Jim Quinn) was brought in, and the deal accepted appears to be very similar to the one that caused the players to dissolve the union and file lawsuits.

Big time agents are losers. Smaller and shorter contracts mean less in commissions. Less movement of players, no more sign and trades, all will hit them in the wallet. They were strongly against the deal that basically has now been agreed to.

The hardline owners are big winners. If they can't make money now, then contraction would be richly deserved.

Me and LeBron are winners. We nailed the lockout for Grantland, and will be writing more columns for them in the future.

The biggest thing I'm anticipating before Christmas is the amnesty debacle, if it is in the new CBA. That's where teams can pick a player to dump (while having to pay the contract) off their team and get the savings on the new salary cap.

Critics accuse Fair Trade USA of watering down standards, perhaps motivated by the bigger fees to be earned from certifying a higher volume of products. Some sellers of fair trade products fear that small coffee farmers will lose market share to the big plantations and that companies will have an incentive to include only the minimum amount of fair trade ingredients in their products.

“It’s a betrayal,” said Rink Dickinson, president of Equal Exchange, a pioneer importer of fair trade coffee, chocolate, tea and bananas, based in Massachusetts. “They’ve lost their integrity.”

Paul Rice, chief executive of Fair Trade USA, said the fair trade movement was dominated by hard-liners who resisted needed changes. “We’re all debating what do we want fair trade to be as it grows up,” Mr. Rice said. “Do we want it to be small and pure or do we want it to be fair trade for all?”

He dismissed criticism that his group was seeking to increase revenue for its own sake. “The more we grow volume, the more we can increase the impact” of fair trade, he said. In 2010, companies that sell fair trade products paid the group $6.7 million in licensing fees, which are meant to pay the cost of auditing a company’s production to make sure its fair trade claims are accurate.

As part of his efforts to expand the fair trade designation, Mr. Rice is cutting ties between his group and an umbrella organization, Fairtrade International, which coordinates fair trade marketing activities in close to two dozen countries. He said his group paid outsize fees to Fairtrade International — about $1.5 million last year — and received little in return. The international group has also rejected the changes put forth by Mr. Rice.

“The best thing we can do is make sure we’re staying true to the principles that got us to where we are,” said Rob S. Cameron, the chief executive of Fairtrade International. “I’m not going to water those principles down.”

The brouhaha has surprised many companies that sell fair trade products and will soon be forced to take sides. For consumers who pay attention to where their food comes from and how it is produced, the result could be confusion as they try to sort through a proliferation of competing fair trade labels with differing claims.

Friday, November 25, 2011

The LMM just came home with three pairs of "cute boots." I like it very much when the LMM feels attractive (which she always is, objectively), and happy (which she is sometimes not). I love Black Friday.

Raoul sends this from Seattle. I think he actually lives in coffee shops, though he does have a nice place to stay, with a deck. Problem is that the weather.... well, check his glasses.

(That's not his real smile, btw. Two reasons to do this: 1. I want to protect Raoul's identity. He is the source for the name the "the savage Raouli" in Hinich-Munger 1994. 2. His nickname was (and is, as far as I'm concerned) "Mr Joy." The sight of that smile on Mr. Joy makes me giggle.

DERBY, Conn. (CBS Connecticut/AP) — A typo has led to the election of the wrong man to a finance board in Derby.

James J. Butler was the highest vote-getter, winning 1,526 votes for the 10-member Board of Apportionment and Taxation, which oversees the town’s finances.

However, his father, 72-year-old James R. Butler, was nominated by the Democratic Town Committee for a second, two-year term.

The News Times of Danbury and New Haven Register report that James R. Butler says his 46-year-old son is not interested in politics or serving in public office.

A reader asks: "Key, Converse, or Downs? Is this evidence in favor of any one of the above theorists? It probably speaks best of Downs considering the line, "'The error was made in the caucus back in July and nobody picked up on it,' she said." I wonder how elite ignorance fits into Downs' theory? Game theoretic irrationality?!"

What I wonder is why Democrats can't come up with a way to proofread ballots. The "butterfly ballot" that cost Algore the 2000 election: Democrats.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Mr. Overwater sends this link (without, I should note, making any claims it is right or wrong. Just thought KPC would be interested, and KPC is interested. KPC is clearly trying to be like Herman Cain, and refer to KPC in the third person. Or maybe Herman Cain wants to achieve the deserved obscurity that KPC achieved long ago? Either way, here is an excerpt from the Google site):

In 2007 we launched our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE lt C) initiative through Google.org as an effort to drive down the cost of renewable energy. We’ve retired this initiative and continue to support renewable energy in a variety of other ways.

Our approach to RE cheaper than C
Through RE lt C, we made several investments in companies working on potentially breakthrough technologies. For instance, we invested in companies like Brightsource Energy and eSolar to help expand their work on concentrating solar power technology, and in Potter Drilling to advance its innovative geothermal drilling technology. We also sponsored research to develop the first Geothermal Map of the US, helping better understand the potential for geothermal energy to provide renewable power that’s always available. And we’ve had an engineering team working to improve a type of concentrating solar power technology called the solar power tower.

Being a broken record is repetitive, by definition. But the fact is that facts have shown over and over that it is a fact that RE gt C, in fact. Wishing it weren't so is just a giant waste of resources.

Today’s visit is the latest in a string of presidential trips to battleground states since he introduced his jobs bill in September. The White House has said the forays are designed to take the president’s case for passage of the legislation directly to the public with hopes of pressuring Congress to pass it.

Congress has so far passed only one small piece of his bill, a measure signed by Obama yesterday that will provide tax credits to businesses that hire veterans. The rest appears mired in partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill, a logjam the president hopes to loosen by pushing his case directly to the public.

“We’re hopeful that the pressure from the American people is ultimately going to prevail,’’ one of the president’s top economic advisers, Brian Deese, said in an interview yesterday.

But some analysts say the destinations the White House has chosen for the trips appear to target electoral votes in the 2012 election rather than congressional votes to pass the jobs bill.

Shortly after unveiling the legislation, Obama held an event on a bridge that connects Ohio and Kentucky, the home turfs of House Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, both Republicans. But his itinerary since then has included Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, which do not have similar connections to GOP leadership on Capitol Hill but are all critical battleground states in next year’s presidential election.

It appears that he has “completely abandoned the idea of legislative accomplishments and switched to electoral accomplishments,’’ said Michael Munger, a Duke University political science professor who was a Libertarian candidate for governor of North Carolina in 2008.

Parker and others believe the logjam in Washington will not ease until the 2012 election is decided and the public gives a mandate to one side or the other to take action. Right now Republicans will not approve large amounts of new spending without an equal amount of cuts, and they are vehemently opposed to tax hikes. Democrats want new spending to accelerate economic recovery, including what is in the president’s jobs bill, but will not make deep spending cuts without new tax revenue.

"Makes obvious sense looking forward to 2012"? Prof. Parker, it's 2011. He is Prez NOW. There has never been a President, in my memory, so utterly indifferent to legislative accomplishment, or to the state of the nation. He does not enjoy working on legislation, doesn't care about policy, and doesn't like having people disagree with him. Much more fun giving campaign speeches to hand-picked audiences, 'cause they will stay say "Yay! You are the MAN!" Even though Prez O is NOT the man. Even Chris Matthews recognizes that Prez O is a nebbish.

Abstract: Inflation erodes the purchasing power of money and distorts some income tax liabilities upward, which in turn discourages savings and investment. When inflation is caused by the central bank “printing” money to fund deficit spending, it results in a transfer of real wealth from the holders of dollars or assets denominated in dollars to the government and, in normative terms, may be conceptualized as a tax. The effect of the so-called inflation tax is regressive, because low-income taxpayers often lack the sophistication or liquidity to invest in hedges against inflation.

Following the double-digit inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. Treasury Department and a host of legal scholars proposed sweeping reforms to comprehensively index the Internal Revenue Code for inflation. However, their proposals were never enacted into law. Instead, Congress chose to respond to inflation on a case-by-case basis. Many of those responses, such as the preferential rate for capital gains, afford relief to the wealthy, but do little to help the poor and middle class. To counter the pernicious effects of inflation and make the Code more equitable, this article proposes an inflation tax credit. Under the proposal, low-income taxpayers may elect between (i) substantiating the average balance of their bank deposits and treasury bills to receive a credit based on that balance, and (ii) taking a standard credit based on their gross income.

COLUMBIA, S.C.—A student from Columbia studying at Stanford University in California has been chosen as a Rhodes Scholar. Katherine Niehaus is one of 32 American students who were awarded scholarships to study at Oxford University. Niehaus will have all her expenses paid to the prestigious university in England. Niehaus' work focuses on biomechanics and she wants to apply her research to high technology entrepreneurship. She also is a mentor and tutor for students in low income families. Niehaus was star student and track athlete at Spring Valley High School, where she won 14 state championships. She was the captain of Stanford's track and cross country teams.

Congrats to Kate! That is very cool. I met Kate when dad Dr. Greg Niehaus and she came to visit Duke. She "settled" for Stanford, I guess...

Anyway, Kate should know that Angus had an important role in her past. Because Angus used to sing this song, loudly, when "House" was around. I should note, we called Dr. Niehaus "Cuddles," because he was captain of the 1979 Kenyon football team in college. (His teammates called him "House." He's still tied for the Kenyon record for most interceptions in a single game: 3 against Grove City College in 1979) . Just LOOK at the guy: clearly he should be called "Cuddles." The song:

Cuh-cuh-cuh-Cuddles!Beautiful Cuddles!He's the only math-uh-matt-ish-uhn we adore!By the luh-light ofA silvery slide ruleHe'll be differentiating on the floor!

I am 100% serious, by the way. We really did sing this. And Angus really did make it up. Congrats to Greg and Liz, and of course to Kate.

Abstract: Labor supply theory makes strong predictions about how the introduction or expansion of a social welfare program impacts work effort. Although there is a large literature on the work incentive effects of AFDC and the EITC, relatively little is known about the work incentive effects of the Food Stamp Program and none of the existing literature is based on quasi-experimental methods. We use the cross-county introduction of the program in the 1960s and 1970s to estimate the impact of the program on the extensive and intensive margins of labor supply, earnings, and family cash income. Consistent with theory, we find reductions in employment and hours worked when food stamps are introduced. The reductions are concentrated among families headed by single women.

Chris Matthews breathlessly comes to the conclusion most of us came to two years ago.

Still, let's be fair: Mr. Matthews gets it right. Our President has zero interest in policy, or change, or addressing any serious problem. He likes to play golf, and he likes to speak to cheering crowds. Obama makes Carter look like Lyndon Johnson, when it comes to effectiveness. As Mr. Matthews put it, and he put it well: "When was the last time a member of Congress heard from him? ...He does not enjoy their COMPANY."

It was not always thus. Mr. Matthews, at one point not so long ago, had a good feeling in his tingly parts, and all the way down his leg, at the mere THOUGHT of putting the words "President" and "Obama" in the same sentence.

There was NEVER any reason to expect BHO to be an effective, or even engaged President. I admit, given the choice between Obama and McCain, again, I'd pick Obama, still. But it would be nice to have some better choices.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of Columbia College

It was spring on the Columbia University campus, and "Keep Off" signs sprang up on the freshly seeded lawns. The students ignored the warnings -- which were followed by special requests -- and continued tramping across the grass. The issue became rather heated, until finally the buildings-and-grounds officials took the problem to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, at that time president of the university. "Did you ever notice," asked Ike, "how much quicker it is to head directly where you're going? Why not find out which route the students are going to take anyway, and build the walks there?